Do you know how children learn best? Through play! And learning letters is no exception—these letter games are perfect for little learners beginning their literacy journey.
The magic lies in the fact that when children are engrossed in play, they become active participants in their own learning process. Their curiosity is sparked, their imaginations ignited, and their brains are primed to absorb knowledge like little sponges.
So let’s dive into some fun letter games to enjoy with your little one!
Free Printable Letter Cards
For these letter games, you’ll need some uppercase and lowercase letter cards. The cards are included with How Wee Read (along with many more beautiful printables), but you can download a sample that includes the first grouping of letter cards right here:
How Wee Read is my learn-to-read resource. It covers it all, from rhyming to reading in 70 sequential, simple, and playful lessons:
- Step One: Phonological Awareness (7 lessons)
- Step Two: Letters, Sounds, and Blending (12 lessons)
- Step Three: Special Rules (4 lessons)
- Step Four: Decodable Readers (47 lessons)
Today, I will share some of the letter games included with How Wee Read. These activities will help your little one practice those all-important letters and sounds.
But First… Phonological Awareness!
When teaching a child to read, it is important to start at the very beginning with Phonological Awareness. Phonological Awareness is auditory in nature and involves hearing and differentiating between sounds.
There are seven Phonological Awareness skills that little ones need to master before they start learning letters and sounds:
- Rhyming
- Word Awareness
- Sound Identification
- Syllable Awareness
- Sound Segmenting
- Sound Blending
- Deleting Sounds
This is exactly how I start my learn-to-read program, How Wee Read. By starting at the very beginning, I was able to ensure that any child will have success when being taught to read for the first time, and any struggling reader could go back to the beginning and relearn each step to catch whichever skill is lacking.
Once your child has mastered these seven skills, they are ready to learn their letters and sounds!
Learning Letters and Sounds
When we teach children their letters, it is important to do so in small groupings, in a specific order:
- s, a, t, i, p, n
- c, k, e, h, r
- m, d, g, o
- l, f, b, q, u
- j, z, w
- v, y, x
This letter order allows reading to flow naturally. After learning the first six letters—the ones you will be practicing with these learn-to-read games!—children can already make words in the “at,” “an,” “it,” “ip,” “ap,” and “in” word families.
Your free letter cards include the first grouping of letters: s, a, t, i, p, and n. We’ll use these cards to play with that grouping of letters until your child is very comfortable with each letter name and sound. Then, after playing and learning, they’ll be ready to blend those sounds together to make and read words!
Phew, that was a big intro. Let’s get into the games!
Go Fish Letter Games
Gather your letter cards in lowercase and uppercase forms, and play Go Fish! To start, shuffle the cards, then place them face down stacked together on the table. Draw three cards each.
Player One asks, “Do you have a ____ ?” filling in the blank with a letter, perhaps an S. If Player Two has that letter card, they hand it to Player One, who gets another turn to ask for a letter. If Player Two does not have that letter, they say, “Go Fish!” Player One then picks up a card from the stack on the table.
Now it’s Player Two’s turn to ask for a letter. Keep going until all of the letters have been matched. Whoever matches all of their cards first wins!
Go Fish Variations
- Letter Recognition: Print two copies of the letter cards and match uppercase to uppercase and lowercase to lowercase.
- Letter Sounds: Instead of asking for a letter, you could ask for a sound. So for the S card, you would ask, “Do you have a card that says sssss?”
- Beginning Sounds: You could also have a fun game of animal Go Fish! Perhaps you reinforce the beginning sounds by asking, “Do you have a t-t-t-tiger?”
Scavenger Hunt Letter Games
For this activity, lay the uppercase letter cards face up on a table and hide the lowercase letter cards in a room.
Have your child find each lowercase card, then bring it back to the table to match it with the uppercase version. They can tell you the letter name they found and the sound it makes.
Scavenger Hunt Variations
- Walk Like an Animal: My little ones love this variation! After finding the first letter card, they have to walk, talk, and act like that animal while they search for the next letter card.
- Make it a Race: Some little ones love when games are a race, others not so much! You know your child best, so if you think they would enjoy a race, grab your stopwatch—or, more likely, the stopwatch timer on your phone, but how cool would a real stopwatch be?!—then get ready, get set, go!
- Find the Sound: Instead of hiding the cards, have your child try to find an object that starts with the same sound as each animal. Perhaps for the snake, they’ll find a pair of socks! Which will be a perfect lead-in to this next set of games…
Sock Toss Letter Games
For this game, put the letters on the backs of the stairs. As your little one stands at the bottom of the stairs, call out a letter and have your child try to throw a rolled-up ball of socks to land on that stair.
Sock Toss Variations
- Letter Sounds: Instead of calling out a letter name, call out a letter sound and have your child try to throw the rolled-up socks to land by the letter that makes that sound.
- Kid’s Choice: If aiming for a specific stair is a bit too hard for your little one, try this variation! Your child throws the balled-up socks onto any stair, and then they have to tell you the letter name, sound, or both that it lands on.
- On the Wall: Don’t have a staircase? No problem! Use some painter’s tape to attach the letter cards to a wall instead. Your child would simply throw the balled-up socks to try to hit the right card.
I hope your little one enjoys playing with the letter cards!
Now that they know that first grouping of letters so well, they will be able to practice blending and reading words in the “at,” “an,” “it,” “ip,” “ap,” and “in” word families.
For absolutely everything you need to teach your child to read, step-by-step in 7o simple lessons, take a peek at How Wee Read right here:
https://shop.howweelearn.com/pages/howweeread
Thank you so much for reading, my friend—and learning to read!
xo
Sarah
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